Three Wishes

Something tremendous happened this morning. I didn't know it until after my leisurely wake up, replete with stretching, half dreaming thoughts, and contemplation of the day. I finally roused myself to go to the bathroom, and upon my return found a small red string on my bed. I wondered what it could be and realized upon closer examination it was the very red string that has been tied around my wrist for precisely two years and 19 days!!!! It was a little ribbon tied on my wrist by some street gypsy guy in Salvador, Brazil The ribbon is from the church of Senor do Bomfim, a strange little church (with and even stranger side chapel totally devoted to body casts and photos of all the people who have been healed by visiting it), and the story goes that when these little ribbons are tied you make a wish for each knot and then leave it on until it falls off, at which point your three wishes come true. SO, that means my three wishes came true!!! But here's the sad part, I don't really remember what I wished for! I was so freaked out by the gypsy guy that most my wishes got used up by wishing he'd leave me alone. Nevertheless I've avoided the temptation to cut it, and then somehow in my gentle sleeping state it simply broke off. . . not during some intense outdoor activity, or Reuben (my cat) chewing on it, or any other likely activity. Though I can't recall the wishes, I can't help but feel it was cosmic on some level. . . a change in the breeze. . .a shift I have yet to perceive. . . I'm on the look out for wishes that have come true in my life.

About a week after I got it (Foz du Iguacu in the background), how it lay this morning on my bed